The Tachikawa Base Command Center was a cathedral of controlled chaos.
Dozens of operators, the best and brightest in Japan, moved with frantic, disciplined energy. Screens flickered with damage reports, casualty counts, and looping video feeds of "The Incident."
But in the central command pit, where the Director General himself stood, there was a heavy, tomb-like silence.
Director General Isao Shinomiya was a man carved from granite and authority. His face, etched with the lines of a hundred battles and a thousand hard decisions, was an unreadable mask. He stared at the main holographic display, his hands clasped behind his back.
On the screen, a slowed-down, heavily enhanced recording played on a loop. It was grainy, distorted by atmospheric energy, but the sequence of events was brutally, impossibly clear.
Frame 1: The Cataclysm-Kaiju, Fortitude 10.0, unleashes its world-ending attack.
Frame 2: A non-Euclidean tear in space.
Frame 3: Two figures are ejected.
Frame 4: The bald figure, designated "Anomaly-Alpha," punches.
Frame 5: The world-ending attack ceases to exist.
Frame 6: Alpha vanishes from the rooftop.
Frame 7: The Kaiju, a being of near-godlike power, dissolves into dust.
Frame 8: Alpha reappears on the rooftop.
The entire sequence, from appearance to victory, took less than three seconds.
"Reroll and enhance Frame 6," Shinomiya commanded, his voice a low gravelly rumble that cut through the tension.
An operator's fingers flew across his console. "Yes, sir. Magnifying... attempting to resolve motion blur... Sir, there is no motion blur. It's not that he's too fast for the camera. It's that in one frame, he is present, and in the next, he is absent from the point of origin."
The image flickered. Frame 5 showed Saitama on the roof. Frame 6 showed an empty roof. Frame 7 showed Saitama in front of the Kaiju.
"He didn't travel the distance," a woman in a lab coat whispered, her voice filled with a scientist's horrified awe. Dr. Arisugawa, head of the Kaiju Research Division, stared at the screen as if it were a page from a forbidden text. "There is no kinetic data. No air displacement consistent with that level of acceleration. It's as if he... teleported."
"But not quite," Shinomiya corrected, his sharp eyes missing nothing. "Look at the dust on the roof in Frame 8. It's been subtly disturbed, pushed outwards from the center. He pushed off. He jumped. He traveled through the intervening space so fast that our highest-speed quantum sensors couldn't capture a single instant of his transit. The laws of physics as we know them do not permit this."
He turned away from the screen, his gaze sweeping over his assembled officers and scientists.
"Give me the reports."
Mina Ashiro, her uniform smudged with soot, stepped forward. Her usual composure was strained. "Sir. The Kaiju horde was annihilated. The Cataclysm-Class, designated 'Daigo,' has been confirmed neutralized. Third Division casualties are moderate, but First Division sustained heavy equipment damage. My own numbered weapon, Fudo-Myoo, is offline pending a complete overhaul."
Shinomiya nodded curtly. "And the Anomalies?"
"Vice-Captain Hoshina made contact," Mina continued, her voice tight. "He attempted to detain them. He was unsuccessful."
"Unsuccessful is an understatement, Captain," Soshiro Hoshina's voice cut in. He stepped forward from the shadows, his face pale but his eyes burning with intensity. "I confronted them. The cyborg, 'Anomaly-Beta,' displayed advanced energy weaponry. Threat potential: Extremely high. Equivalent to a full platoon of officers in custom suits."
He paused, gathering his thoughts, struggling to put the experience into words.
"Alpha... is different. He displayed no weapon. He emitted no discernible energy. No killing intent. No aura of power. There was... nothing. But when he decided to leave, I was... unable to act. It wasn't a psychic attack. It was the simple, crushing certainty that any aggressive action would be utterly, cosmically pointless."
He held up his hands. They were perfectly steady. "I have never hesitated in my life, Director General. But in that moment, my body refused my commands. My instincts overrode my will. It knew what my mind could not accept: I was not facing a warrior. I was facing a conclusion."
A chill went through the room. Hoshina was known for his almost inhuman nerve. For him to admit to something like this was more terrifying than any damage report.
"And the scanner readings?" Shinomiya asked, turning to Dr. Arisugawa.
The scientist pushed her glasses up her nose, her hands trembling slightly as she brought up a new set of data on the screen. It was mostly corrupted files and error messages.
"Director General, our technology is based on measuring Kaiju energy, fortitude, and biological output. It's designed to measure things that exist. When we point our scanners at the location where Alpha stands... we get a null reading. A void. It's like pointing a thermometer at a black hole. The instrument isn't just giving a zero; it's reporting that the very concept of temperature is inapplicable."
She pointed to the one consistent message they had received. ERROR: FORTITUDE CANNOT BE CALCULATED.
"We thought it was a malfunction," she said, her voice barely a whisper. "But we are beginning to believe it is the only accurate data we have. His durability isn't a high number. It is a concept our mathematics cannot process. He is a blank spot in the world."
Director General Shinomiya stood in silence, processing the impossible reports. A monster that broke the scale had been erased by a man who couldn't be measured. An unknown force now walked his country, his world. This was a threat far greater than any Kaiju. Kaiju were monsters to be fought. They were a known quantity.
This was a walking apocalypse, and they had no idea if he was friend or foe. Worse, they had no way of stopping him if he was the latter.
"What do we tell the public?" a junior officer finally dared to ask.
The room fell silent. The entire battle had been broadcast live. The appearance of the 10.0 Kaiju. The failure of the Defense Force. The sudden, inexplicable victory. The world had seen it. They were demanding answers.
Shinomiya's gaze hardened. A decision was made.
"The official report will be as follows," he declared, his voice leaving no room for argument. "The Cataclysm-Kaiju Daigo was defeated by a new, experimental weapon deployed by Captain Mina Ashiro. A satellite-based, concentrated energy cannon codenamed 'Heaven's Hammer.' The anomalies were a visual side effect of the weapon's discharge—a trick of the light. A plasma reflection."
Mina's eyes widened. "Sir? You want me to take credit for... for that?"
"The people need a hero, Captain. They need a symbol of humanity's strength and ingenuity. They cannot be told that we were saved by an incomprehensible entity that we don't understand and cannot control. It would lead to mass panic. Chaos. The breakdown of society."
His eyes met hers, and in them, she saw the cold, hard pragmatism of a leader willing to bear any sin for the sake of order.
"You are the face of the Defense Force. You are their hope. From this day forward, you are the woman who single-handedly defeated a 10.0 Kaiju. This information does not leave this room. Understood?"
A chorus of "Sir, yes, sir!" echoed through the command center.
Mina stood silent for a moment longer, the lie feeling like a lead weight in her stomach. But she understood the logic. She understood the necessity. With a heavy heart, she gave a sharp salute. "Understood, Director General."
Shinomiya nodded, turning back to the screen where the two anomalies were last seen.
"Now for the real problem," he muttered, his voice low. "Launch every reconnaissance drone we have. Use every satellite. I want to know where they went. I want to know what they're doing. I want to know what they eat for breakfast. A new, top-secret directive is now in effect."
His eyes narrowed to slits.
"Find me the Caped Baldy."